Consider a $n$ by $n$ by $n$ grid represented by the set of $3$-uples $S=\{1,2,\dots, n\}^3$. A line (resp. slice) of $S$ is a subset of cardinal $n$ (resp. $n^2$) where two components (resp. one component) of the $3$-uples are fixed. Some boxes of the grid are black (and the remaining ones are white), they are represented by a subset $B \subseteq S$. For a fixed $r \le n$, consider the following assumptions on $B$: - every line contains exactly $r$ black boxes. - in every slice, the black boxes can be filled collinearly, i.e. there is an ordering $b_1, b_2, \dots, b_{rn}$ such that for all $i>1$ there is $j<i$ such that $b_i$ and $b_j$ are in a same line. *Example*: For $r=2$ and $n = 4$, the following combination (given by the pictures of $4$ parallel slices) satisfies the two above assumptions. $\substack{ \displaystyle{◻◻◼◼} \cr \displaystyle{◼◼◻◻} \cr \displaystyle{◼◻◼◻} \cr \displaystyle{◻◼◻◼} } $ $\substack{ \displaystyle{◻ ◼ ◼ ◻} \cr \displaystyle{◼ ◻ ◼ ◻} \cr \displaystyle{◻ ◼ ◻ ◼} \cr \displaystyle{◼ ◻ ◻ ◼} } $ $\substack{ \displaystyle{◼ ◻ ◻ ◼} \cr \displaystyle{◻ ◻ ◼ ◼} \cr \displaystyle{◼ ◼ ◻ ◻} \cr \displaystyle{◻ ◼ ◼ ◻} } $ $\substack{ \displaystyle{◼ ◼ ◻ ◻} \cr \displaystyle{◻ ◼ ◻ ◼} \cr \displaystyle{◻ ◻ ◼ ◼} \cr \displaystyle{◼ ◻ ◼ ◻} } $ An ordering $b_1, b_2, \dots, b_{rn^2}$ of $B$ is Eulerian if for all $i>1$ and for all $j<i$, there is $k<i$ such that $b_i$ and $b_k$ are in a same line $l$, and if $b_i$ and $b_j$ are in a same slice $s$, then $l \subset s$. Note that the notion of Eulerian ordering is related to the notion of [shelling][1], as explained in [this post][2]. *Remark*: If $r=n$ then the grid contains black boxes only and the lexicographic ordering is Eulerian. **Question**: Has $B$ (satisfying the two above assumptions) an Eulerian ordering if $r \ge 3$? *Remark*: The above combination (with $r=2$ and $n = 4$) admits no Eulerian ordering (proved below by brute-force search; a conceptual proof would be useful). Note that any *partial* Eulerian ordering of it has length at most $11$. ____ Brute-force search with SAGE Computation: sage: %attach SAGE/EulerianGrid.spyx Compiling ./SAGE/EulerianGrid.spyx... sage: B=[[1,1,2],[1,1,4],[1,2,1],[1,2,3],[1,3,1],[1,3,2],[1,4,3],[1,4,4],[2,1,1],[2,1,4],[2,2,2],[2,2,4],[2,3,1],[2,3,3],[2,4,2],[2,4,3],[3,1,2],[3,1,3],[3,2,1],[3,2,2],[3,3,3],[3,3,4],[3,4,1],[3,4,4],[4,1,1],[4,1,3],[4,2,3],[4,2,4],[4,3,2],[4,3,4],[4,4,1],[4,4,2]] sage: %time PartialOrdering(B,[],11) CPU times: user 29min 4s, sys: 796 ms, total: 29min 5s Wall time: 29min 27s Code: # %attach SAGE/EulerianGrid.spyx from sage.all import * cpdef JoinDegree(list L1, list L2): cdef int i,c c=0 for i in range(3): if L1[i]==L2[i]: c+=1 return c cpdef IsCollinearList(list l, list L): cdef list i if L==[]: return True for i in L: if JoinDegree(l,i)==2: return True return False cpdef PartialOrdering(list L, list P, int A): cdef int c,cc cdef list i,j,k,t,LL,PP if len(P)>A: print(P) if L<>[]: for i in L: if IsCollinearList(i,P): cc=0 for j in P: if JoinDegree(i,j)==1: c=0 for k in P: if JoinDegree(i,k)==2 and JoinDegree(j,k)>=1: c=1 break if c==0: cc=1 if cc==0: LL=[t for t in L] PP=[t for t in P] LL.remove(i) PP.append(i) if LL<>[]: PartialOrdering(LL,PP,A) else: return PP [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_(topology) [2]: https://mathoverflow.net/q/296273/34538